Protecting U.S. Skies and Airports: Israeli Security Methods in U.S. Airports
As Gaines and Miller (2013) point out, American security forces focus on finding weapons while Israeli security focuses on finding terrorists. The difference gets to the heart of why the Israeli system is so much more efficient. However, Israel has a population of 8 million—less than that of New York City. And New York City is home to just one of many hubs and international airports in the U.S. Approximately 17 million travelers flew into Ben-Gurion Airport in Israel last year, as well—which is about a third of the number that flew into JFK (Zeff, 2017; NBC, 2018). Because of the sheer volume of travelers throughout the U.S., which dwarfs Israel’s numbers completely, the question is whether Israel’s methods can actually scale and work in a nation as big and open to the rest of the world as the U.S. The fact of the matter is, too, that Israel’s airport security is really only different from that of the U.S. in terms of place and intensity—and who is scrutinized. In the U.S. everyone is scrutinized. In Israel, most Israeli citizens are waived through after a few questions. Arabs and foreigners are questioned extensively, undergo full luggage searches and can be detained for hours—except this is not done at the airport. It is done at checkpoints on the road leading to the airport. That is why the airports themselves are not full of lines. The lines are outside the airport (Gaines & Miller, 2013). However, the special relationship between the U.S. and Israel means that the U.S. is not far behind and many American airports have implemented Israeli security methods.

Security Interviews

One of the big ways that American airports are importing Israeli security methods is through the use of security interviews. Cathay Pacific...…a digital pre-check in which the traveler uploads all the information that would be sought out by a security interviewer ahead of time in order to qualify for the pass. Once the pass is approved, the security check has already been rendered. By making the fast pass a pre-requisite for all fliers it would completely reduce the routine of removing belts, shoes, etc. that still take place in American airports.

Conclusion

Israeli security methods have shown themselves to be effective because they primarily profile passengers to identify terrorists whereas Americans tend to scan everyone indiscriminately to avoid being accused of profiling. The latter method leads to lines and delays. The former methods does as well—but the lines and delays are formed outside the airport. American airports are catching up, however, and beginning to adopt Israeli methods by obliging inbound airlines to conduct security interviewing and by getting passengers to profile themselves before flying with…